Online Job Search

Perform Your Online Job Search With Finesse

Are you putting all of your eggs in one basket? Combining an online job search with a traditional job search is a great approach and you can reach more employers.

In the days when internet was a term from the book of geeks, people like you (only if you do not consider yourself to be a geek) and me used the offline approach to search job.

There were to do lists for achieving the best results.

You will be astonished to know most of them exist and are valid today. It's just that they are accentuated by the advent of internet. Online job search is much more productive use of time, only if it is done right; taking care of the same basic principles that were followed before going online was a common thing.

If you wish to get great results from your job search efforts then please make sure you plan meticulously. As they say it

You Fail to Plan
You Plan to Fail

The basic steps to get the most out of your job search can be listed as following:

• Prepare your resume
• Do the research
• Contact the employers
• Networking: Make sure that's an ongoing activity for you
• Set up interviews
• Pursue job leads that you may have collated from various sources.

If you read the points above carefully, you will find them to be very fundamental in nature. That means the process would not change much depending on whether you are searching a job online or offline.

Going online does not eliminate any of the steps above. You still have to follow the process. It's just that you can be efficient in terms of time when you are searching job online. You can reach more prospective employers easily and quickly without really wasting a lot of time as you would do in case of conventional job search.

It feels really weird when some of my friends think of internet as a magic button that will get them interview calls from the best of organizations. All they do is prepare a resume, upload it to numerous online databases and then sit back waiting for a call.

That's not how it works.

You have to be proactive and serious if you wish to get some calls for interview. Sometime there will be an urgent opening in your best friend's office and you wouldn't know about it just because you are not expecting it over there.

Let's look at the types of job openings available

• Advertised job opening
• Unadvertised job opening

Advertised job openings are the ones that you find in television, radio, newspapers, websites and any other media that you can think of. Most of us are on the lookout for such job openings.

Unadvertised job openings are the ones that you will not find advertised in mass media. These are the ones that will come to you through your friends, relatives and family members. Not to forget the network of acquaintances that you might have built over a period of time.

If numbers are anything to go by then you will find it difficult to believe that the number of unadvertised jobs are far more than the number of advertised jobs.

Thus finding a great job is much more than posting your resume in a few online databases. Let's have a look at some of the online job search tips that can help you in securing an interview.

Unique Resume

Please be very careful while preparing your resume as that will represent you in front of the employer. A well thought out resume will speak volumes about you as a person and the kind of value addition you will be getting into the organization. So do not hurry this step at any cost. Take your time and come up with a resume that you feel proud of.

Posting in Niche Databases

Apart from posting your resume in common job portals it would be a good idea to post your resume in niche databases related to your field. More often than not these are highly receptive to job applications. Since they specialize in a particular field the chances of securing an interview or a job for that matter are much better than ordinary job portals.

Participating in forums

This may seem a little weird at first, but take it from somebody who has done this firsthand. It simply works. Let's assume that you are a licensed electrician. There are people needing help with electrical problems in their homes. Where do they go?

Of course to the online forums.

By participating in the forums you will help a lot of people with your expertise and thus build a list of trusting acquaintances. This group of people you have helped, in future can lead you to the unadvertised job opportunities we discussed sometime back.

Networking

Networking online is a great way of getting in touch with professionals in your field. Infact most of the HR managers I know have a very busy online social life. There are some professional social networks like Linked In and some other informal ones like Facebook, that have shown great results for job searchers. Get your profile up there and start connecting with the prospective employees.

Most of the points we discussed above are immensely powerful and have the potential of landing you in the dream job that you have been after for ages.

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